Primary Functions
- Water-specific risk assessment on farms
- Visualization of water risks
Detailed Description
The Farm Water Assessment is an easy-to-use tool for on-farm use by farm managers, developed by SAI Platform.
The tool is intended for water specific risk assessment on farms where water issues are already known or perceived to be important, and not for every site, or to replace generic farm assessment tools.
The Excel-based tool sets out, in plain language, the key components of knowledge required for reliable risk assessment, followed by the risk assessment itself. Its clear visual presentation of the results, also serves as a powerful communication tool for engagement between a farm and its supply chain customers.
The concept behind the tool is explained in a plain language SAI Platform publication: ‘Farm and catchment level assessments’ (2015, in 5 pages plus short appendices). This work is a follow up to SAI Platform’s first ‘Water stewardship in sustainable agriculture’ publication, titled ‘Beyond the farm towards a catchment approach’ (2013).
The on-farm study has three basic steps: (1) Gather the knowledge; (2) Carry out a risk assessment, first on risks TO the farm, and second, on risks FROM the farm to others; (3) Apply appropriate risk mitigation. Visual ‘before and after’ radar charts allow the user to clearly follow and communicate progress in knowledge gathering and risk mitigation.
The target audience includes food & beverage sustainability managers who wish to engage in a straightforward and practical way with their supply chain farmers. The main business case for farms is that it is a cost-effective way to better understand water-related risk to their business, and to help guide them on risk reduction and mitigation. This will improve business confidence for themselves and their customers.
How to use the Farm Water Assessment tool?
Print off the indicator tables as A4 – size hard copy from Excel sheets
- 1. Knowledge (Indicators A1 – A16 on 5 pages)
- 2. Risks TO farm (Indicators B1 – B9 on 3 pages)
- 3. Risks FROM farm (Indicators C1 – C6 on 2 pages)
